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He was so much fun to watch while growing up. I so enjoyed watching Sports Extra; whenever Tom McDonald guest hosted, I would immediately turn the channel. On weeknights, John Toland used to ask him the trivia questions and I can't remember Mazer getting more than a handful wrong.

Friday afternoons, 1 PM at Mickey Mantle's, sitting at the bar, with Bill only feet away at the window, we his live audience and he treated us like old friends. Great memories, and a wonderful person. Just as a side, Mike and the Maddog filled in one week, and Francesa, contrary to Bill, acted like royalty and we were 'in the way'. Wonderful man Bill Mazer, versus dirtbag Mike Francesa.

I remember Mazur fondly, though one thing always stood out about his nightly broadcasts - how poorly edited the video clips were. Home run clips would follow the runner entirely around the bases and back to the dugout. And you'd get the occasional routine groundout for no discernible reason. Part of the Channel 5 charm.

earning the nickname the Amazin’ for his encyclopedic recall of sports facts and figures

I am always envious of people who can cite rosters (who was the left fielder for the 2006 Tigers?) or yearly events (who won the 1992 World Series? how about the American League Rookie of the Year?) on command. I cannot do this at all, which is one of the many reasons I couldn't do radio or TV. In real life, you can look things up beforehand if you're writing, or if you're in a conversation, you're likely to be forgiven for failing to remember something or getting it wrong. But when you're on radio or TV, you don't have that luxury. You have to just talk about whatever the game throws at you, and if you consistently make tiny mistakes or sound uninformed, people will assume that the substance of your points is also wrong.

(Chris Russo is also really good at factual recall. Obviously, it doesn't make you good at actually analyzing the sport...)